...and God continues to move!

As I said in the last post, staff was getting ready to leave, so these past few days have been really important!

Saturday, the sixth, was my last discipleship with my amazing discipler, Jenny. We talked about truth and grace and how they should be balanced in an ideal relationship. Figuring out the areas in my life where I tend to lean towards performance (all truth and no grace) was an eye-opening experience, and I am excited to see how God changes my heart throughout the rest of the summer. Saturday night we had the staff v. students softball game. It was a great way to end unity week, although we did lose the softball game...by a lot.

My action group at the softball game!

Sunday was the unity service at the church we attend. Six churches came together. It was amazing to experience different kinds of worship (Gospel choir, Spanish music, prayer in Korean), and it definitely opened my eyes to the world around me. After church, students met with different staff members in the roles that they were chosen to serve in for the rest of project. SMSP staff has chosen me to be the Director of Operations for the rest of project (explained below). We were trained in these roles for a few hours before our outreach event for the day. For outreach, we stood next to the pier with signs containing tough questions such as "Why do bad things happen to good people?" and "Why would a good God let his people go to Hell?". By holding these questions, we were hoping to spark up spiritual conversations with people. I was skeptical to this approach at first, but it was cool to see how God was present and moving in several conversations that afternoon.

Week 4

This week is Love the World week! Monday's dinner was devoted to spreading awareness about the condition of the world and the many different people groups in it. It was a very convicting experience, as I truly saw how distracted we are as Americans and how much need there is around the world.

Tuesday after work, I got the chance to hang out with coworkers! The four of us that work there and are a part of Cru decided to skip out on dinner and go to our coworker volleyball night at the beach. It was cool to spark conversations with the people I work with and I can't wait to get to know them even better at volleyball next week! After volleyball, we had our last Bible study with staff. It was a great reflective experience, but we are all going to miss them so much for the rest of project!

Last Day with Staff

Wednesday night we had a banquet to celebrate the half way point of project and to reveal to everyone what students were taking over what positions for the staff. There are 9 teams as described below:

Lead Team: 2 directors and 4 others to help them with decisions

Outreach Team: focused on how we can reach the city of Santa Monica

Community Team: focused on bringing all of us together

Men's Team: focused on the needs of the men (self-explanatory)

Women's Team: focused on the needs of the women (self-explanatory)

Prayer and Vision Team: focused on maintaining the focus of project

Operations Team: manages the project budget and all behind-the-scenes stuff

Events Team: plans events such as our end-of-the-year banquet

Action Group Leaders: lead Bible studies and disciple fellow students on project

As I stated above, staff has chosen me to be Director of Operations for the rest of project. I am nervous/excited to serve in this role -- it includes monitoring the funds of project as well as making sure that things at our motel and the church run smoothly. This opportunity was given to me by God and I can't wait to use this position to grow in Him and glorify Him with everything. I constantly need to humble myself because God is above all and in all.

The action group at the banquet

Overall, it was so cool to see everyone come together and share what God has been doing so far on project. Eleven people have come to know the Lord! We have initiated well over 600 conversations so far and Santa Monica is responding well.

The rest of the week...

Thursday's dinner was such a weird experience. The room felt so empty without staff there. Although it felt like something was different, I was amazed to also have the feeling of completeness within our project. Staff has equipped us well, and even though we miss them dearly, we are capable of big change on our own for the next four weeks. I am stoked to see what will happen.

Prayer Requests

• God would continue to convict us of ways that we can change while we are on project
• Project would continue to run smoothly now that staff is gone
• Everyone would do their role to the best of their ability
• We would all stay humble in the position we were called to serve in
• The Holy Spirit would speak through us as we share the Gospel
• We would all have a renewed sense of energy as we go into the second half of project